Students Rate St. Edward's Highly

In the National Survey of Student Engagement (NSSE), St. Edward's University exceeded the national average on all five benchmarks, including academic challenge, collaborative learning, student-faculty interactions, enriching educational experiences and supportive campus environment.

Social Justice at St. Edward's University — A Living, learning experience

Living Learning Community. What does that mean? As a freshman this year, I participated in the Social Justice Living Learning Community. I lived fully, learned a lot about myself and the world around me, and now am part of a community that is forever. Community is the most important aspect of a LLC and mine understood that. The Social Justice LLC isn't just a group of students that live on a residence hall floor together — we are a family, a family that is there for each other and cares for one another.

I feel as though I happened upon this experience. During high school, I visited St. Edward's once and knew nothing about residence halls or the campus in general. I had no intention of enrolling … just wanted to visit the campus. During the spring semester of my senior year, I decided St. Edward's was my college. I then received an e-mail about applying for something called a Living Learning Community and thought to myself, "That sounds neat, why not?"

Service is a huge part of my life, and it was something that I wanted to take with me to college. I felt like the Social Justice LLC would provide me with that opportunity. The rest is history and here I am now at St. Edward's. On campus, there are so many ways and opportunities to be involved. It can sometimes be overwhelming. Being in the LLC was comforting. I knew that at the end of the day I was still part of something wonderful, with wonderful people.

In LLCs, students choose their housing based on a common theme, and throughout the year, they explore the topic and deepen their knowledge of the subject. Taking a class together made our experience more than just a group that served and lived together. The class emphasized the learning aspect and our closeness facilitated some great discussions, discussions I had never had in class before college. This is what college is meant to be like. There is supposed to be good conversation, conversations that make you think and grow.

In the LLC, we are all so different. I am a Global Studies major, but some are studying Political Science, others English, and some are Education majors. It's this meshing of differences that keeps things interesting. We all come from different places with different lives and different beliefs. But at the end of the day, we can all agree that we are a family and we are a community that lives and learns together. I highly recommend the LLCs to anyone attending St. Edward's. They are great for so many reasons. For 2011–2012, freshmen can choose from five different Living Learning Communities, including:

Business

Global Understanding

Honors (by invitation)

Natural Sciences

Social Justice

Why not take a chance and do something wonderful for yourself? What LLC are you interested in? The final deadline to apply for an LLC is May 2. Apply now.